## Chapter 95 – Zombie Parade
The festival was nearing its end. Each church seemed to have started a head-collecting competition, drastically discounting most of their goods.
But the problem remained: the lack of undead. Contrary to the festival’s original purpose of eradicating the undead, the public wanted more.
Elise sighed at this trend.
“It’s not a good sign. The meaning of the festival will be distorted. Demanding more undead is a very wicked thought.”
It was strange how she seemed so disappointed, considering she was the one who wanted undead more than anyone else.
“That’s just how adventurers are. Don’t worry about it. They don’t mean anything by it. They just want the talents.”
“That’s true, but I can’t help but feel uneasy.”
We had managed to gather some talents, but even with the discounts, it wasn’t quite enough to buy the Greaves of the Savior’s Paradise Assembly. I, too, was very sorry that the undead had dried up. But I didn’t want to show it in front of Elise.
“Then, Barbarian, let’s get going. If we’re late, we won’t even get to see any zombies.”
“Let’s do it.”
Today’s party members were me, Cloudie, Copson, and Elise. Copson had been sticking around lately, and Sera had closed up shop because Elise’s business was terrible. With nothing else to do, she decided to join us.
“It’s been a while, Elise.”
“I hope you’ve been well, Copson.”
“Of course.”
It seemed like Copson and Elise hadn’t met since we searched the Necropolis. He lowered his voice as usual. I couldn’t help but sigh at his strange behavior.
“He’s lowering his voice again.”
“Damn it, can you stop saying that! Do you think I’m the kind of guy who only cares about his voice when he’s around women!”
“It would be so much better if you didn’t lower it like that.”
Anyway, we went outside the city gates.
As always, the guard looked exhausted.
“Hmm, there’s nothing around but people.”
Cloudie said.
Indeed, all that was around were armed adventurers with fierce expressions. They were lounging around, starting bonfires, and generally being lazy. The atmosphere was generally sluggish because there were no undead.
Why do these guys love starting fires so much?
Campfires from morning.
“That’s right.”
“We’ll have to go a little further.”
I saw some religious people loading zombie corpses onto carts, starting to clean up. The stench was overwhelming.
Even F-rank adventurers were diligently moving corpses. They were the city’s all-purpose errand runners. They were grateful just to be given such tasks. They probably made about 5 coppers a day.
“The festival is coming to an end.”
Copson said in a wistful voice. It was as wistful as someone watching fireworks at night. His face lit up with each explosion.
He was the one who enjoyed the festival the most. He bought strange merchandise and festival food with every talent he earned, having a great time.
In contrast, I had wasted the talents I collected early on useless holy water, and now I wasn’t buying anything to save up for the greaves. I didn’t enjoy the festival at all.
“Ah, it’s ending.”
Honestly, I thought intermediate holy water would be great for fatigue recovery, but it turned out to be less effective than a Bacchus. All that precious holy water turned into clear pee. Shit, thinking about it, it’s really fucked up.
Elise was next to me, so I decided to ask.
“Elise, is holy water supposed to be ineffective?”
“Are you talking about holy water?”
“Yeah. I bought a bottle of intermediate holy water and drank it, but it was no different from plain water. I mean, doesn’t it help with fatigue recovery?”
Actually, I impulsively bought the holy water because of Cloudie. I was exhausted from her constant sexual demands. I couldn’t refuse her, so I bought some.
“Holy water has anti-magic power, but I don’t know if it’s effective for fatigue recovery. I think that’s a misconception among the public.”
“Anti-magic?”
“Didn’t you see the ghost last time? Holy water is an effective means against such beings. It’s also useful for dispelling curses.”
But surprisingly, holy water doesn’t help with fatigue recovery.
I was so shocked by this unbelievable fact that my legs started to tremble.
“Katt, holy water doesn’t work?”
“…Oh.”
“An irresistible urge, huh? Hehe.”
“Damn it.”
We walked for a long time.
But there wasn’t a single undead in sight. Instead, there were only adventurers who had lost their motivation and were slumped over like the undead.
Honestly, I was nervous every time I ran into those guys. Who knew if those who had failed would suddenly have a change of heart and turn into murderous robbers?
“Barbarian, I don’t see any undead. This is a real problem.”
“Hmm… Let’s go deeper. Is that okay?”
We had come quite far, but there was no success.
The monsters had disappeared due to the outbreak of the undead. The forest was too quiet.
“I’m in. Cloudie, what about you?”
“I’m fine. Let’s go further.”
Since we didn’t have anything else to do today, the four of us decided to go deep into the forest, even if we had to camp out. Now that we were out, we had to bring something back. Maybe there were isolated undead hiding somewhere.
“It’s not hot.”
Fortunately, the weather was cool. With such good weather, we could walk as much as we wanted. We had a simple meal around noon and continued into the forest.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this far before.”
“Where is this?”
The scenery around us was starting to feel unfamiliar.
It was the first time we had come this way, and we had gone too deep. It was probably around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. We had been walking for over 6 hours since morning, so it would be a chore to go back.
“Hehe… Katt, we’re camping out tonight?”
“I guess so. Are you okay with that? It’s cold outside. The desert is hot, so is it a little hard for you?”
“The desert nights are cold too. And I don’t care as long as I have you. It’s a little disappointing that we can’t go back to the room. You know you have to make up for it when we get back, right?”
“M-Make up for it? What?”
Cloudie came up to me and secretly stroked my crotch.
I became very afraid. I had to come up with a plan.
ㅡOrororong.
ㅡOrororororong.
“You two seem to be very close. That’s a good thing. But you shouldn’t forget why we came here. Undead have appeared.”
The moans of zombies came from over there. Ororong, the sound of forcing breath into a rotten, decaying vocal cord was extremely bizarre. It was like the sound of air escaping from rotten intestines, a tone that was unpleasant to hear.
“I see three of them. This should be very simple… or not?”
We each took out our weapons.
Then Copson pointed at the zombies and said.
“Barbarian, look at that. Doesn’t something seem strange?”
“Huh? What?”
“Look at the zombies closely.”
ㅡOrorong.
I barely stopped Elise, who was about to rush out, and observed the approaching zombies. Something strange? The way they were swaying was exactly like zombies…
“What, what are those guys?”
I was a little embarrassed.
The zombies looked a little different.
The zombies I had seen so far were completely rotten and decayed, with almost gray skin, exposed bones, dressed in rags, and walking around with their intestines hanging out.
ㅡOrororong
But these three zombies in front of me looked different.
“They look a little fresh.”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
As Elise said, the zombies looked a little fresh. No, they looked so fresh that they seemed to have “just become zombies.”
“These guys are too fresh.”
They were properly dressed, and if you ignored the blood splattered on their clothes and the fact that half of their cheeks were torn off, they were no different from ordinary people. Well, that’s what separates zombies from people in the first place, but I had a feeling about it.
“Zombie newbies?”
They even had scabbards on their waists. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any weapons.
“They seem to be adventurers who had an accident.”
“I guess so.”
“Hmm, they look healthy?”
“They must have just become zombies. We need to purify them quickly.”
It felt like they had come out too far, made some kind of mistake, and been turned into zombies by the undead. Their flesh was barely rotten, and their equipment looked good…
“This will be worth money!”
“I agree!”
Elise rushed out first, followed by me and Copson. Elise, calling out to God, struck the zombie’s neck with her morning star.
ㅡThwack!
“Good heavens!”
ㅡCrack!
The zombie’s head was torn off and flew into the sky. It was an amazing power. It was creepy to see a zombie that didn’t look very zombie-like get treated like that.
“Hey, Copson, don’t get blood on it. Cleanly.”
“Of course.”
I also swung my sword and cleanly cut off the neck. If blood gets on the clothes, the value of the product decreases. There was already a lot of blood on it, but there was no need to get more on it.
We managed to cleanly deal with the three zombies.
“May you go to your rightful place.”
Elise, who had arranged the three zombie corpses side by side, prayed. It was the corpse recovery she had done in the dungeon before. She wouldn’t have done it normally, but they hadn’t been zombies for long, and there were only three of them, so she decided to do it.
“Then let’s take off their clothes.”
“Hehehe, you barbaric bastard. Let’s take them off.”
We took off the corpses’ clothes. There was blood on them, but they weren’t damaged, so we could probably get some value for them.
Of course, there were secret wallets and talents inside. We harvested them with satisfaction and put them all in a sack.
“…This? Katt. Look at this.”
“What is it?”
Cloudie, who was rummaging through the corpses, threw something at me.
It was a metal plate.
“This is an adventurer’s pass. It’s E-rank?”
It was an E-rank adventurer’s pass.
“E-rank? Were these guys E-rank? It’s hard to imagine E-rank adventurers being defeated by zombies. What happened?”
Copson expressed his doubts.
It was a little strange.
Looking at the pass, the name was Rizer, and he seemed to be a so-so E-rank adventurer. No, if they’re E-rank, they’re decent, so how could they be defeated by zombies? I was also wondering.
“All three of them have adventurer’s passes.”
Elise then took out adventurer’s passes from the corpses. The names of the other two were Zerot and Serx. They were all E-rank, and the issuer was Isvant, so they were from this area.
“Three people died together…”
Three armed E-rank adventurers were quite a strong force. People often ignore them, but their experience in killing monsters was not to be underestimated. At least they were stronger than the thugs in the back alleys.
The fact that three such adventurers were undead in this place meant that there was definitely another reason besides making a mistake.
“Could they have been attacked by a ghoul? The one we met recently.”
“Ah, that friend you sliced up in an instant.”
Cloudie, who was excited by that kind of monster, turned it into minced meat in one hit.
“It seemed to be a strong monster. If Katt fought it, he would have to risk his life? If that’s the case, it’s not that strange that they died.”
“Is that so?”
Anyway, if we bring the passes of the deceased adventurers to the guild, we’ll get a small reward. It was a chance to raise our adventurer level, so we kept them.
Well, we were lucky. I thought we would fail, but we got our hands on these finished products. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the weapons they used, but we could make some profit from their clothes, belongings, cash, and shoes. The talents were a bonus.
“A ghoul, that’s interesting. Shouldn’t we search the area? If it’s a ghoul that killed people, we must get rid of it.”
Elise said.
I looked at Copson’s face. When our eyes met, he nodded.
But I remember the ghoul eating corpses.
These guys died too cleanly, didn’t they?
